ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONTowards the end of 2018, Felipe Lopez decided to take his concepts of the natural a step further with the ever revered artistic concepts of light and water being elevated in a contemporary sculpture format. Taking the form of the light bulb, but this time in Edison Bulb form, and marrying it with a common place bath faucet has brought forth some of Lopez’s strongest work to date, both conceptually and visually.

These works speak to the necessity of water in our daily life and also to the fragility of our water supply. Regardless of social status or culture, clean water is what ties us together along with nature depending on the same resource. The hand tied fishing flies coming from the faucet signify how one must consider important our ecosystem is to our own daily lives. These works are truly a contemporary catharsis for Lopez who has risen from the flood waters to produce pieces of contemplation and connection.

Catching the attention of art powerhouses Mariana Valdes and Paola Creixell, Lopez swiftly signed with their gallery Forma 110 in Houston for another major exhibition to open 2019 entitled Felipe Lopez: The Liquidity of a Right. Located within Spring Street Studios in Sawyer Yards, Forma 110 will host a bevy of these faucet pieces with the opening happening Friday, February 8th from 6-9pm.

“We are allowing old tech to effect the future of our health in an age when we know how precious life’s greatest asset is which makes up 60% of our physical state…”, says Lopez. “Regardless of people thoughts towards climate change, politics, or manufacturing practices, water is as precious as life itself.”

​ARTIST STATEMENT:​Obscuring the light IS obscuring the idea...

As our society constantly reshapes our idea of a relationship to the sun, the light of the sun and its effect changes our lifestyle and the choices we make.

As our social, economical, and ecological practices change over time our idea of our relationship with the sun changes as well. This view of light and our relationship to light is cyclical with the sun. Just as we alter our environment and our connection to light, nature’s relationship is also altered and changed due to our existence and choices.

Therefore us metaphorically obscuring the light is obscuring the idea. This is what keeps us from true cultural and practical change in regards to protecting and sustaining our environment.

Because society constantly reshapes our idea of the natural world, we are also subjected to a spiritual shift as well. Within the day to day of our modern and technological culture, we are further and further away from nature itself.

Yet we constantly read about the studies concluding that nature is the answer to many of our issues, even doctors prescribing time in nature to patients. It is this paradigm shift, this fight between blue screen light vs sunlight, that keeps us from a developed understanding and elevated sense of importance of natural light in our lives.

Spiritually there is a co-dependency between light and water because life depends on both of these elements. Now it is just the question of how this becomes more common place within our social, economical, and environmental constructs to help us honor and project the natural world.

In regards to this concept within the pieces of this exhibition, the materials help reverberate light and nature. The resin found within the light bulbs is a petrochemical by product suspending hand tied fishing lures, refracting light through a man made material in a miniature ecosystem.

The faucet pieces help depict the daily use of natural resources and if we are conscious or unconscious of the way we use or abuse them in our own lives. The pyramid shape in the hanging of these works bring about a waterfall effect that exhibits the trickle down effect of our impact on the environment while the projections help note the way nature responds to our actions.

The use of a common faucet also signifies the precious commodity that water is for all humanity. As it becomes harder for some to access clean water, we find ourselves faced with more crisis in every country. Corporations like nestle and Monsanto are destroying our clean water resources globally while we have our own crisis close to home in a first world country in Flint, Michigan or even older than that St. Joseph, Louisiana. We have all seen what has happened to the Dakota access pipeline towards our natural resources.

We are allowing old tech to effect the future of our health in an age when we know how precious life’s greatest asset is which makes up 60% of our physical state. Regardless of people thoughts towards climate change, politics, or manufacturing practices, water is as precious as life itself.